“The Merciless (Bulhandang)” met with an avid response at the Cannes Film Festival’s midnight screening Thursday, receiving a seven-minute standing ovation from the audience, according to reports.

It was the longest duration of applause that a Korean film had received at Cannes this year, reports said.

Hong Sang-soo’s “The Day After,” “Claire’s Camera” and Jung Byung-gil’s “The Villainess” received applause that ranged from two to five minutes. Bong Joon-ho’s Okja met with applause that lasted five minutes.

International critics also heaped praise on “The Merciless.”

The audience’s responses were heated to the point of record-breaking, Cannes film fest’s general delegate Thierry Fremaux reportedly said after the screening. “It was a very successful midnight screening,” he added.

An executive from Finnish distributor Fidalgo said the film’s opening scene featuring two men talking about fish captivated the audience straight away. “The non-sequential, innovative editing and fresh dialogue makes you immersed in the two (main characters’) relationship.”

Kabata Keizo of Japanese film distributor Twin called the work “the best crime film from Korea in the past several years. The dense suspense film dealing with ‘duty and betrayal’ will strongly appeal to Japanese audiences. I have no doubt that Im Si-wan will become a famed Korean actor in Japan,” Kabata said.